Year in Review | Electronic Highlights

We've gone a little list happy for this year's best of round-up. But we're having fun, so here's another one: The best moments in electronic music.

5) John Talabot "Matilda's Dream" - Permanent Vacation

Hypnotic and tribal, Talabot's "Matilda's Dream" sneaks up on you. As the drums pound and the kick thumps, a throwback acid bassline creeps in and builds to a crescendo with the help of these angelic chimes. It's pure Balearic gold. If you bring the sunset and posh European island, this song will take care of the rest.

4) Gyptian "Hold Yuh" (Major Lazer remix) - Ministry of Sound

I don't follow dancehall as closely as I'd like to, but I did discover this island anthem thanks to Major Lazer's mix. Combining a Robin S.-era house beat and Gyptian's pitch perfect reggae crooning, this is one of those cuts that you can play out almost anywhere. And 2010 heard a lot of it while I was in the DJ booth.

3) Chaim "Love Rehab" - BPitch Control

All the way from Israel, Chaim's "Love Rehab" is exactly the bubbling type of deep house that the Dialogue Inc. family loses its head over. Mellow but not boring, it swirls with hand claps, understated vocals from Meital De Razon and keys that twinkle so lightly, you'd think the synth was hot to the touch.

2) Lindstrøm and Christabelle Real Life is No Cool - FeedelityLindstrøm's 2008 album Where You Go I Go Too was three songs that all clocked in at over 10 minutes. They were groovy. But they weren't the subversive Italo pop of this year's Real Life is No Cool. A collaboration with vocalist Christabelle, it' sexy, dark and infinitely more accessible. Read our full review here: Dialogue Inc | Real Life is No Cool

1) Eleven Tigers Clouds are Mountains - Soul Motive

"What, then, happens after Burial?" David Stubbs asked in his review of Clouds are Mountains for the Quietus. "Not despair and disappearance, but a determined, affirmative nowness – not nothing, but everything." Stubbs points out that while Eleven Tigers would not exist without Burial's brilliant soundscapes, Lithuanian producer Jakubas Dargis builds out those barren soundscapes with clattering drums, distortion, plucked guitars, alien feedback and about a zillion other building blocks of sound. This is what the future of dubstep sounds like and the taste Dargis gives us on Clouds are Mountains has us thirsting for more.

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